Women of the Left Bank

If you believe the usual literary histories, the early 20th-century modernist movement in English literature was, Gertrude Stein excepted, a movement of men. Benstock restores the roles of such remarkable women as Djuna Barnes, Jean Rhys, Sylvia Beach, and Janet Flanner in the history of the time, revealing what she calls the "underside of the cultural canvas." The book is thorough and wonderfully descriptive, offering both a literary history and a portrait of the lives of creative women. --Maria Dolan

Product Description

This ambitious historical, biographical, and critical study has taken its place among the foremost works of literary criticism. Maurice Beebe calls it "a distinguished contribution to modern literary history." Jane Marcus hails it as "the first serious literary history of the period and its women writers, making along the way no small contribution to our understanding of the relationships between women artists and their male counterparts, from Henry James to Hemingway, Joyce, Picasso, and Pound."

As a feminist scholar, Benstock analyzes the places these women occupied in the Paris scene as well as in a world in transition. She admirably examines the literary works of the writers, but the book never feels solely like a book of criticism. Biographical information abounds and gives each chapter something of a story arc.

For readers who enjoy biographies of literary personalities but often miss the lack of detailed discussion of a writer's works, this book will not disappoint. And if you are at all interested Paris in the early part of the last century, modernism, or any of the many women discussed in the book (Edith Wharton, Djuna Barnes, Gertrude Stein & Alice Toklas, HD, Mina Loy, etc.) this book will be an invaluable source of information.


A enjoyable book about a time I would have liked to share   September 30, 1999
 19 out of 41 found this review helpful

This book was a good introduction for me to read more about women who lived in Paris, but like so many, they went there to live a life ahead of their time.